Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

J. K. Rowling

Chapter 4

Chapters 5–6, page 2

page 1 of 2

Summary: Chapter 5

Harry wakes up in the company of Hagrid and realizes that
the preceding night was not a dream. The two set off to London to
shop for Harry’s school supplies. Harry is concerned about the money required,
but Hagrid assures him that his parents left behind plenty of funds
for him at Gringotts, the wizards’ bank run by goblins. Their first
stop in London is at the Leaky Cauldron, a pub where all the patrons
recognize Harry and are both nervous and honored to have the opportunity
to meet him. They head out to the street, where Hagrid taps on a
brick wall, and a small street called Diagon Alley opens before
them. Hagrid explains that Harry will buy what he needs for school
here. They go to Gringotts, where they are escorted down to Harry’s
safe. Inside, they view the piles of silver and gold that Harry’s
parents left him. Hagrid explains the complex wizard monetary system,
which is composed of Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts. Hagrid fills
a small bag with money. He then takes Harry to another vault, number 713,
which is empty except for a grubby little package that Hagrid picks
up and hides in his clothes, warning Harry not to ask about it.

Hagrid then takes Harry to be fitted for his uniform.
In the store, he encounters a snobbish and unlikable boy who will
also be starting Hogwarts in the fall. The snobbish boy talks highly
about grand old wizard families, and Harry begins to worry about
whether he is cut out to be a wizard. But Hagrid reassures Harry,
telling him that he will learn all he needs to know and that there
are many Muggle students at Hogwarts. After buying the required
books and ingredients for potions, Hagrid and Harry then head to
the wand store. Mr. Ollivander, the storeowner, makes Harry try
a number of magic wands, telling him that it will be clear when
he has the right one. Harry tries out many wands. Finally, he picks
up one made of holly and phoenix feather, and sparks shoot out from
it—this is clearly the right wand. Ollivander tells Harry that the
only other wand containing feathers from the same phoenix belonged
to Voldemort and had been used to give Harry his lightning-bolt
forehead scar.

Summary: Chapter 6

Harry’s last month with the Dursleys is unpleasant. The
day before he is due to leave, Harry asks Uncle Vernon to take him
to the train station. Uncle Vernon agrees to take him but ridicules
him for saying he is to leave from track nine and three quarters,
as is marked on the ticket Hagrid gave him. The following day, Harry
arrives at the station and stands between tracks nine and ten, wondering
with increasing alarm how to find track nine and three quarters.
Finally, he overhears some people mention Hogwarts; it is a family
of red-haired children who seem to be bound for the academy. He
asks the mother for help, and she tells him to walk through the
barrier between tracks nine and ten. Harry does so, and he is astonished
to find the train to Hogwarts on the other side. Harry boards it.

On the train, Harry is introduced to Fred and George
Weasley, twins who are returning to school, and to their brother
Ron, another student who will be starting at Hogwarts. Ron introduces Harry
to such details of wizard life as Quidditch (a game a bit like soccer,
but played on broomsticks), Famous Witches and Wizards cards (collectible
items like baseball cards), and Every Flavor Beans. One of the cards
bears the picture of Albus Dumbledore. Ron, who comes from a poor
family, cannot afford the pastries sold on the train, so Harry buys
a lot with his newfound wealth and shares them with Ron. Harry also
meets a somewhat annoying, overachieving girl named Hermione Granger
and sees again the unpleasant boy from the uniform shop, whose name
is Draco Malfoy. All the students have heard of Harry, and Harry
is not sure how to respond to his fame. Arriving at the station,
the newcomers are led onto boats in which they sail to the castle
of Hogwarts.

Analysis: Chapters 5–6

The shopping trip to Diagon Alley and the train journey
to Hogwarts represent not a total abandonment of Harry’s earlier
life, but in many ways represents a more magical and mythical version
of it. The Muggles’ world and the wizards’ world are not opposites,
but parallels. Certainly there are major differences as far as Harry
is concerned; whereas in the Muggle world he is dependent on the Dursleys
and is relegated to cramped living spaces, he now has money and
respect. But the two worlds themselves are not so very different.
For instance, there is snobbery and condescension in both. Harry
has not escaped the selfish Dudley entirely, because Dudley is in
a sense reborn in the figure of Draco Malfoy, another snob who revels
in making Harry feel socially inferior. Draco, like Dudley, considers
himself superior to Harry because he belongs to an established family
while Harry is an outsider. Moreover, just as the name Dudley Dursley
contrasts with the name Harry Potter, so does the name Draco Malfoy.
Draco was the name of a harsh ancient Greek lawmaker and is also
the Latin word for “dragon”; Malfoy is an Anglicized version of
the French words mal and foi, which mean, roughly, “bad faith.”
Draco Malfoy can thus be seen as a more villainous (and more glamorous)
version of Dudley Dursley.

Similarly, money drives both worlds. The wizard realm
is not a money-free paradise, but is like a mirror of the Dursleys’
consumerist world, complete with banks, shops, and candy vendors.
Nothing in Diagon Alley is handed out for free; everything must
be bought and paid for with an alternate currency, but the coins
are minted in gold and silver just as in the Muggle world. There
is outright wickedness in both the Muggle world and the wizard world.
The villainous Voldemort matches the cruelly neglectful Dursleys
in evil. All this shows that Harry’s exciting new life will not
be simply a withdrawal from his earlier misery into some cushy new
heaven. His new life will not necessarily be safer or easier than
the old one. What is different is not the world so much as Harry’s
role in it; his powers and status have increased enormously. He
has been reborn—like the phoenix that gives his wand its powers—into
much the same world as before, but with a new and different life.

If you have not seen Harry Potter movies. YOU SHOULD!! Seeing these movies gives you a good idea of whats happening and while your are reading you can see and imagine all that happens clearer. To those who do not like to read, (Why?!?!?!) look at the movies they give out very important info and all the answers to your reports in 2 hours!! For those WHO DO READ!!, enjoy the book and have FUN!

I think the rule breaking can be interpreted as Harry not being perfect however he is making the choice to do a bad thing for a good reason. I think a common theme throughout the books is that there is no purely good and purely evil, it is not our inherent characteristic, however it is our choices, this is demonstrated with Dumbledore, James Potter and Snape. In contrast, bad decisions are represented by Malfoy and Wormtail.